1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for preparing an aqueous composition useful as a stabilizing and texturizing agent in dairy products, the composition obtainable by said process and a food composition comprising a dairy product base and the aqueous composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
In food industry, many dairy products such as soft white cheese are processed by heat-treatment, homogenization and hot-filling in order to obtain the packaged dairy product. If the heat-treatment or hot-filling of the dairy product is carried out at temperatures of higher than 60xc2x0 C., textural quality defects, such as a grainy, sandy or mealy mouth-feel, may result due to uncontrolled protein agglomeration. This is a particular problem of low fat/high protein dairy products containing less than 10% fat due to a decreased stabilizing effect of the fat component. Although dairy products may be packaged in a cold-fill process avoiding elevated temperatures, such cold-filling requires the use of an aseptic processing system.
It is known to use stabilizing compositions containing hydrocolloids and starch in order to avoid syneresis in a dairy product, as described in WO 9957996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,243 and EP 289096. However, there is still demand for a further improvement of such compositions, in particular to be used in processing at elevated temperatures.